Royal Mail admits and drops misleading claim about junk mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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In case you were wondering… the Stop Junk Mail campaign still exists. Working full time (mostly six days a week) is taking its toll but I'm still spending a fair amount of my spare time battling unsolicited dung. What's more, a couple of people have recently offered to help with the campaign. This is needed more than ever, and it has already achieved something: Royal Mail has today confirmed that its claim that the company distributes 'only' 25% of all unaddressed mail is complete nonsense.

For the uninitiated, I'm talking about the Door-to-Door Opt-Out, Royal Mail's opt-out scheme for unaddressed mail items delivered by the postman. Royal Mail distributes a fair amount of leaflets, and there are heaps of people that are not interested in all that crap. However, rather than simply not delivering leaflets to households with a 'No Junk Mail' sign Royal Mail has decided that people not interested in unsolicited leaflets should sign up to an opt-out scheme.

One of the many issues with the opt-out scheme is that Royal Mail discourages people from registering. When you request an opt-out form (phone 01865 796 964 or use Junk Buster) the company will warn you that you may miss all sorts of "important information" if you opt out. On top of that they used to advise that registering won't do much to reduce junk mail because "Royal Mail only delivers about 25% of the total volume of unaddressed mail in the UK". In other words, you may as well not bother.

I've always maintained that the figure of 25% is misleading and probably (and wrongly) includes inserts in free newspapers. In response to a Freedom of Information request - made by one of the people kindly helping out with the campaign - Royal Mail has now confirmed the figure was indeed misleading.
Commercially sensitive!?

Getting an honest response from Royal Mail was, let's say, a challenge. The request was submitted on 2 December last year and asked for the following:

The year to which the statistic of 25% relates.
The total volume of unaddressed mail used in the calculation.
The total volume of unaddressed mail distributed by Royal Mail used in the calculation.
The source of the data used in the calculation (in particular the source of the data used to estimate the volume of unaddressed mail distributed by other distributors).
The definition of 'unaddressed mail' used in the calculation (i.e. does the definition include items such as inserts, unsolicited directories, and free newspapers).

In its response Royal Mail stated that data about the total volume of unaddressed mail is available on the world wide web and that statistics about how much unaddressed mail is distributed by the company is too "commercially sensitive" to be revealed. The two statements are, of course, irreconcilable. If data about the total volume of unaddressed mail is publicly available then any idiot can figure out how much unaddressed mail is distributed by Royal Mail: 25% of the total volume.

Royal Mail is very sorry

The appeal was successful. Royal Mail has confirmed that the data about the total volume of unaddressed mail came from the Direct Marketing Association - and they've also acknowledged that this information is only available to members of the junk mail lobby group. At the same time Royal Mail has recognised that data about how much unaddressed mail is distributed by Royal Mail is not all commercially sensitive. So here we have it; finally the British public is allowed to know how much leaflets are distributed in the UK, and how many of them are pushed through the door by the Royal Mail.

Year Total (m.) RM (m.) RM (%)
2003 11,880 2,997 25
2004 12,220 2,830 23
2005 13,045 3,354 26
2006 11,962 3,434 29
2007 11,232 3,088 27
2009 9,929 2,989 30

Interestingly, Royal Mail states in its response that the total volumes are based solely on surveys amongst members of the Direct Marketing Association. In other words, the data comes from a biased source and doesn't include all the leaflets distributed by companies that are not a member of the Association (as far as the Direct Marketing Association is concerned take-away menus don't exist).

Another problem with the figures for the total volume of unaddressed junk mail is that they do indeed include inserts in free newspapers. It's for this reason that I suspect Royal Mail's share of the leaflet business is likely to be around 50%. In 2008, Royal Mail distributed roughly 2.2 leaflets to the average household* per week. It's probably fair to say the average (weekly) free newspaper comes with three or four inserts. What we're looking at, then, is a simple accounting trick aimed at persuading you that your postie really doesn't deliver that much junk mail (and that you might as well not sign up to the Door-to-Door Opt-Out.

Finally, the Freedom of Information request has achieved something else. The claim that Royal Mail distributes 'only' 25% of all unaddressed mail has been removed from its website. So you see… the campaign is still very much alive.

* Calculated as (2,989,000,000 leaflets / 25,800,000 households) / 52.

[Pat Ostman]

And who gets it in the neck when we deliver door to doors to an address with a NO JUNK MAIL sign, but has not opted out (wilful delay if you don't).

Obviously us.

"Stupid c***, can't you read?
f***ing jobs worth
Blind f****r"

Were just a few phrases one of our lovely customers said to me recently. I know we might need this s**t but it's us feeling the heat.

Strange though, they never come out in force when it's -12 to thank us for our work

And as for that daft article, it's flawed. When they arrive at the 50% they are ONLY including free newspaper inserts, not takeaway places and 'bobs' tree cutting service.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Year Total (m.) RM (m.) RM (%)
2003 11,880 2,997 25
2004 12,220 2,830 23
2005 13,045 3,354 26
2006 11,962 3,434 29
2007 11,232 3,088 27
2009 9,929 2,989 30

This I think is the good new bad news part of the story.

Good News is that we are getting more of the market share, but the actual number is dropping so in effect we are getting a largeer share in a declining market - not so good.

[Pat Ostman]

TBT, looks like they are only pitting royal mail v newspaper inserts. Not the countless other items that arrive through your door which nobody can monitor.

The numbers mean nothing.

[DGP1]

About half the stuff that comes to my house comes from us but that said...........it either goes straight into the recycling box or it's used to help light the fire, I personally don't know what the problem people have, these D2Ds are already produced and will always be produced so it doesn't matter who puts them in for recycling................unless they just want something to complain about

[Tman]

The irony is that the blogger idiot has wasted far more of his obviously precious time in doing his blog, campaigning etc than would have been taken up with just picking up all those items he finds so offensive, and putting them straight into the recycling bin.
Just another of life's serial whiners....

[fishtank]

What is the fascination with un-addressed junk mail?
Is a 30 page Matalan catalogue more eco-friendly than a single page Sky leaflet because it has your name and address printed on it?

DIARY OF A JUNK MAIL CAMPAIGNER
Wrote some bollocks.
Masturbated.
Had a Pot Noodle.
Masturbated.
Played World of Warcraft for 17 hours.
Masturbated.
Wrote some more bollocks.
Went to bed.

[Biker Mouse]

What is the fascination with un-addressed junk mail?
Is a 30 page Matalan catalogue more eco-friendly than a single page Sky leaflet because it has your name and address printed on it?

DIARY OF A JUNK MAIL CAMPAIGNER
Wrote some bollocks.
Masturbated.
Had a Pot Noodle.
Masturbated.
Played World of Warcraft for 17 hours.
Masturbated.
Wrote some more bollocks.
Went to bed.

And masturbated some more!

[DGP1]

What is the fascination with un-addressed junk mail?
Is a 30 page Matalan catalogue more eco-friendly than a single page Sky leaflet because it has your name and address printed on it?

DIARY OF A JUNK MAIL CAMPAIGNER
Wrote some bollocks.
Masturbated.
Had a Pot Noodle.
Masturbated.
Played World of Warcraft for 17 hours.
Masturbated.
Wrote some more bollocks.
Went to bed.

And masturbated some more!

You lot make masturbation out to be a bad thing

[TeeferTiger]

What is the fascination with un-addressed junk mail?
Is a 30 page Matalan catalogue more eco-friendly than a single page Sky leaflet because it has your name and address printed on it?

DIARY OF A JUNK MAIL CAMPAIGNER
Wrote some bollocks.
Masturbated.
Had a Pot Noodle.
Masturbated.
Played World of Warcraft for 17 hours.
Masturbated.
Wrote some more bollocks.
Went to bed.

And masturbated some more!

You lot make masturbation out to be a bad thing

It'll fall off/make you go blind/you'll get hairy hands etc... DGP is living proof.

[DGP1]

What is the fascination with un-addressed junk mail?
Is a 30 page Matalan catalogue more eco-friendly than a single page Sky leaflet because it has your name and address printed on it?

DIARY OF A JUNK MAIL CAMPAIGNER
Wrote some bollocks.
Masturbated.
Had a Pot Noodle.
Masturbated.
Played World of Warcraft for 17 hours.
Masturbated.
Wrote some more bollocks.
Went to bed.

And masturbated some more!

You lot make masturbation out to be a bad thing

It'll fall off/make you go blind/you'll get hairy hands etc... DGP is living proof.

It can be replaced by plastic surgery/glasses then laser eye correction/and you can shave your hands..............works for me

[REDLETTER]

So the most up to date data is about 2009?

[CORTINA]

well there you go... life moves on....theres always a problem somewhere...

[rhino49]

TBT, looks like they are only pitting royal mail v newspaper inserts. Not the countless other items that arrive through your door which nobody can monitor.

The numbers mean nothing.

Not "Through the door" Pat .... partially stuffed in the letter box and left on view to annoy posties and alert burglars

[justdeno]

In my expedience, d2d's are a pain in the butt. I've been attacked by people, sworn by them, for delivering these supposed important live mail. Tried to say "just put them in the bin or recycling", but they would rather threaten us. RM should send manager's or Moya, to see what we go through, she would be petrified for her safety. . They sit in their offices in the warm, dont see what we have to go through ever day with the public, not all the public are horrid, but we always find out the rotters